ORONO- The Maine Black Bears scored 10 runs over the first five innings and pounded 16 hits on Friday evening, en route to a 10-9 America East baseball win over the Stony Brook Seawolves at Mahaney Diamond in the home opener.
Maine took a 1-0 lead in the first on a two-out RBI single from Joe Bramanti. Stony Brook only had one hit but would score three times in the top of the second to take their only lead. With two outs and no runners on, Matt Brown-Eiring reached on an error by third baseman Jake Rainess and advanced to second on the bad throw. Cole Durkan then tied the game and reached third base on a deep drive to centerfield that was dropped by the Black Bears Jeff Mejia. Derek Yalon was then hit by a pitch, and David Alleva walked to load the bases. Stanton Leuthner came through with a groundball two-run single to center to make it 3-1 Seawolves. The hosts then regained a lead they wouldn’t relinquish in the bottom half of the inning. Ryan Turenne led off with a triple down the right field line, and with one out scored on a Jordan Schulefand single. Schulefand would steal second base and scored on an error by Stony Brook second baseman Evan Fox on a ball hit by Mejia. After a Jeremiah Jenkins single to put runners on first and third, Quinn McDaniel would reach on a fielders choice allowing Mejia to score for a 4-3 lead.
Jeff Marquez added to the lead with an RBI single in the third for a 5-3 advantage. Maine then looked like it would pull away by scoring five more runs in the fourth inning. Bramanti and Rainess both singled in runs, and then Turenne lifted one over the fence in right field for his second homerun of the season and the three-run shot made it 10-3 Black Bears. Stony Brook though would fight back. A two-run single by Luenther and a bases loaded walk cut it to 10-6 in the fifth, and then a two-run homerun by Fox off Maine reliever Leif Bigelow in the seventh got the Seawolves within 10-8. A passed ball in the same inning allowed another runner to score to slice it to a single run. The guests had the tying run on second base with two outs in the ninth, but Matt Pushard got Brown-Eiring to pop out to McDaniel at second base to end it and keep the Black Bears unbeaten early on in conference play.
Bigelow (2-0) earned the win for Maine in relief. York native Trevor Labonte started on the hill and allowed six runs (three earned) on three hits with seven walks and three strikeouts in 4.2 innings. Pushard also got his second save. Mejia, McDaniel, Bramanti, Rainess, Turenne, Schulefand, and Scout Knotts each had two hits. Turenne had three RBI with his homerun, and Bramanti had two knocked in and leads the team with 25 RBI. Leuthner led the way in the loss with two hits and four RBI. Ben Fero (1-2) took the pitching defeat on the mound allowing seven runs (five earned) on 11 hits in 3.2 innings. The Seawolves fall to 7-13, 3-1 in America East. Maine improves to 7-11, 4-0 in conference play and will continue their series with Stony Brook Saturday and Sunday afternoon to finish off the three game weekend.
SBU 0 3 0 0 3 0 3 0 0- 9 9 2
UME 1 3 1 5 0 0 0 0 x 10 16 3
WP- Bigelow (2-0) LP- Fero (1-2) SV- Pushard (2)
HR- Turenne (2), Fox (3)
3B- Turenne
2B- none
SB- McDaniel 2, Schulefand 2, Rainess, Giordano
Left on base- Stony Brook 15, Maine 9
